Audiobooks!

When I was little, my parents borrowed audiobooks from the library so we could listen to them on long road trips. Mum is an English teacher, and she was always good at finding the really funny ones. Since then, I haven't really listened to them until this year. A couple of months ago I subscribed to Audible because someone I follow online had one of those deals for a free book. When I was younger, I used to go to the bookshop and look at the audiobooks and sigh because they were always ridiculously priced. Now I pay $15 a month and I get a monthly credit, which is so much cheaper than buying an audiobook on CD for something like $100 (I may be exaggerating but this was totally the price for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in my memories). 

So, I paid my subscription fee and I was getting credits but I wasn't actually buying anything. Then I realised that I can listen to things that I would never have the time to read because I'm in my last semester of grad school. I listen to my audiobooks when I'm on the train to and from uni. (I also sometimes listen to them before I go to bed, which I don't recommend because I always fall asleep and it's really difficult to figure out how much you've missed). What I have bought so far are the second and third books in The Hunger Games trilogy (which I have read), and the first half of Game of Thrones, which I haven't. Those books are so huge that the audiobooks come in two parts. So it would basically be $200 for every instalment of the trilogy if you were to buy them on CDs.

I'm enjoying Game of Thrones so far - I'm halfway through the first part of the book - but there was one part that really bored me towards the start, which is the description of how much Bran loves climbing. This probably only took up one or two pages of the book (which really, is too much, you only need two paragraphs at the most and even that is stretching it. See also: JRR Tolkien's description of the leaves of Lothlorien or whatever they're called), but it took up about 10 minutes of my train ride one day, and I knew what was going to happen. When you're reading, you can just skim that part and then when it's moved on it's fine. Much more difficult with an audiobook, particularly on a Kindle when you can only skip forwards or backwards 30 seconds at a time. Anyway, as annoyed as I was about that, the next chapter from Bran's point of view was fantastic: I loved the dream sequence with the crow, and I think it was beautifully written. There's a chance I may have skipped that if I was reading a physical copy of the book, but I don't know.

So there are some hopefully coherent thoughts I have on audiobooks, as they relate to Game of Thrones. I'm really enjoying my audiobook experience. Next I might try Bossypants because I have been told that Tina Fey narrates it herself.

"Winter is Coming", Round 2

Maybe the reason that I stopped watching Game of Thrones wasn't the amount of nudity, or the people getting beheaded but rather that I was so fucking confused. I have no idea if I was trying to read or doing something else when I was watching the first time, but if I hadn't taken notes while watching it again I wouldn't have been able to keep track. I certainly think that knowing what I learned in the time that I didn't watch the show has helped me understand it a bit more. Reading the wikipedia article for this episode after I watched it was also helpful. And I guess I've changed my mind? I put off actually watching this for a week because for some reason I managed to convince myself that I hated it, but it could also be because of the emotions I have attached to the show or that I don't want to be wrong. I have a feeling I could end up loving this show by the end of the first season. So there's that.

The two things that put me off the series were the violence and the nudity. As a fan of Girls, I've gotten used to seeing boobs on my television screen, but when I first saw this I was a bit shocked. There was a little more nudity than I remember, and why were the Dothraki taking turns to have sex with a woman in the middle of a wedding? I hestitate to call them savages - I haven't read the books, but there seems to be some sort of connection between these people and colonialism which could be interesting. As for violence/gore, nothing I saw was as disgusting as the second episode of Breaking Bad (it took about a week for me to start watching again, and I only just watched episode three all the way through about a month ago), but I still get a bit queasy. I really wanted to look away for Will's execution. Blegh. So we'll see.

The first scene was the one which left me with the most questions. They were going through a tunnel which turned out to go through the wall to 'Beyond the Wall' (I figured that out on my own!). Someone needs to come up with a better name for that region. How far north is The Wall? It's a barrier of ice, but has winter already struck there before it makes its way to Winterfell? I get that it could be so far north that it's a permafrost/tundra situation, otherwise the decade long summer would have had to have led to a long melt. (Signs you're an environmental student). So the White Walkers are possibly what people are calling the Ice Zombies and are believed to be extinct and killed a bunch of people. Even so, the corpses/body parts were arranged in a specific way and I want to know if that's significant. Except don't tell me what it means.

The Starks
From what I've read, but mainly heard on television podcasts, I know that this first season is the story of Ned Stark. Bran Stark, the kid who falls off the tower (I remember that bit) is possibly the least interesting of the five Stark children (although they haven't done much with the youngest). I remember seeing the archery scene the first time I saw the episode, and it establishes Arya quite well - the obvious tomboy, compared to her older sister who can only think of marrying Joffrey (did he even have lines?). Despite the fact that Ned Stark was once unfaithful to Cat (which resulted in Jon Snow, who is a babe), they have a good marriage. That was all I wrote in my notes about that, but given what's going on with the Lannisters and Daenerys, I like that there is one happy marriage. Aside from the girls, and learning that Bran likes to climb and it gets him into trouble, there's not much on Robb Stark or the youngest Stark child (no, I don't know his name yet). Understandably, it seems they wanted to establish Jon Snow's place within the House of Stark, even though he's an outsider.

The Lannisters
I remembered that it was the Queen having sex in that last scene but I didn't make the connection that she was involved with her brother. The other option is that I did make the connection and was so shocked that I did my best to forget it. They're painted as the villains of the piece at this stage and there's not really that much to say about the twins. Lord Tyrion is much more interesting -  his conversation with Jon Snow is about establishing Snow's relationship to the Starks, and there is an attempt to connect the situations of the two characters which I would appreciate more if the dialogue wasn't so clunky. I'm also interested in whether he knows about his siblings' relationship.

The Targaryens
Poor, poor Daenerys. I remember the part where her comes in and talks about her marriage. Given that their father was considered the 'Mad King', I can sort of understand, wait no I can't, because he is willing to let his sister be raped in order to reclaim the throne. (Has he inherited some of his father's madness? I doubt this show is seriously going to explore issues of mental health). Because of this, I will make very little effort to learn his name. It's weird knowing so much about a show I haven't watched, so I know to take note of the fact that Daenerys is presented with the dragon eggs at the wedding . At this stage, Daenerys is just a pawn and has absolutely zero agency. I have to say that from what I've heard about the show, I'm more interested in her development than any other character. Along with Peter Dinklage, I'd say that the best acting so far has been Emilia Clarke's.

The Iron Throne
It appears that Joffrey is not yet the King and he and Sansa were making eyes at each other the entire time. So: Ned Stark helped the Robert become King, and at the end of the episode, Robert asks Ned to be the Leo McGarry to his Jed Bartlet because he doesn't trust anyone else. Ned goes because Cat gets a letter that explains that the King's previous Chief of Staff (this is a frame to help me understand things) was murdered by the Lannisters, which makes sense from the first scene that takes place at King's Landing. This episode relied a lot on exposition and it's weird to rehash the plot to the internet, but whatever. My guess is that the Lannisters are plotting to claim the throne by removing everyone close to the King in order to be able to kill him. This is the problem with so much exposition - it's not a difficult guess to make.

The main thing that interests me about the Iron Throne however, is that Ned Stark didn't want it. He helped Robert claim the throne and is now to help run the Kingdom of Westeros. There are talks of arranging a marriage between Joffrey and Sansa, which would give the House of Stark a quasi future claim to the throne, but she would take his name.

The Men of Westeros (in which I objectify the men of Westeros)
Jaime Lannister is pretty darn attractive, but he's sleeping with his sister, so he loses points for that. A friend told me that Robb Stark was her favourite but I like Jon Snow the most. It would be a shame if he chose a life of celibacy and watching ice zombies atop the Wall.

Bullet points:

• Apparently you just ask girls if they've started menstruating. So there's that.
• I like the direwolf puppies. I read on wikipedia that Sophie Turner adopted her puppy after season one, which is the best thing ever.
• I know this world is going to expand a lot, and I'm very glad that I took notes and sort of understand the characters so far.

A Game of Thrones experiment

I have a bunch of half-written, unpublished posts on this blog. Or two of them. One is on how The Newsroom works better for a non-American audience, the other is on the recent Netflix produced version of House of Cards, which ran on Foxtel throughout May and June. Over the last two years I have become a fan of an increasing number of TV shows. Last November I went through a breakup and I started watching a lot of new things. One thing I was never able to get into was Game of Thrones. I understand the premise: there are a bunch of families, or houses as they're called in the series, and they're all competing for the Iron Throne. My ex-boyfriend showed me the pilot and what I remember are: a guy dies in the very first scene; it is snowing in that scene; there were lots of boobs; there are people having sex and a boy sees them because he climbed up a tower and at the end someone pushed him off. For most of the episode, I had trouble keeping track of who was who, and my boyfriend told me that the kid lived, so there was nothing keeping me interested past that point. I've also been spoiled for most plot points such that I'm able to understand most of the references in Bunheads, which is pretty much my favourite show that is in danger of being cancelled. (I saw Bunheads before I saw Gilmore Girls and I relate much more to Bunheads, which is why it is my favourite). So anyway, I am pretty much spoiled for the first three seasons. Here is what I know:

• Ned Stark is beheaded in the first season.
• There is a kid named Joffrey who is basically the fictional version of Justin Bieber (you're welcome), and everyone hates him
• Daenerys has dragons
• A bunch of people die in what is known as The Red Wedding (because I live on Twitter, I basically spoiled myself on this one because I don't particularly care about the show that much)
• There is a wall and things happen beyond it.
• Arya Stark seems pretty awesome and from what various critics have said about her. This is pretty much why I'm interested in the show.
• The actor who plays Sam in Love, Actually is in it.

The problem is, I didn't like that pilot. I feel like I'm the only one - Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in Australia. TV Critics love it, my friends who have seen it love it, but I had no reason to keep going. So I'm going to watch the first season all the way through and see if I change my mind. I'm limiting myself to one episode per weekday over a two week period. I'm not going to do an episode by episode analysis, because if you want to read that, there are fantastic reviews over at the AV Club by Todd VanDerWerff and David Sims, as well as Alan Sepinwall, Mo Ryan (the Huffington Post website doesn't do categories the way I'd like them, so I'm just linking you to her page), Myles McNutt and probably a number of TV critics whose work I haven't read.

I'll probably write posts after episodes 1, 5, 9 and 10. The experiment is to see if I like it at the end of the season. So for the first episode I'll try and work out what's going on and see whether I liked it more than I did on the initial viewing, and I know that episode 9 is when big things happen. The posts of episodes 5 and 10 will go up on Fridays and they will be more about how I feel about the season as a whole.

Breaking Bad Season 3: a non-essential episode?

I started watching Breaking Bad last November, and am slowly catching up before the last 8 episodes air in winter (where I'm from) this year - I realise I was very late to the party. It took me a while to get into this show, between all the gore in episodes 2 and 3 of season 1. I couldn't make it through episode 3 and had to wait a week before I started again from the next episode, because I had been assured that it was worth it.

Now, about 4 months later I've finished season 3. This isn't going to be a long post, much of what I could say about this show has already been said by people who know a lot more about it than I do, and I haven't watched any episode more than once. My ritual for watching the show is that I'll watch an episode, and then I'll read the review for it over on The A.V. Club. As everyone who has seen th knows, the shadow hanging over Walt's head during the first half of the season (other than his deteriorating marriage) is that two cartel guys are out to kill him. Walt's brother-in-law, Hank, ends up in a gunfight with them and is subsequently hospitalised mid-season.

After watching the episode "One Minute", which follows Hank through his ordeals with suspension from the DEA and the gunfight, I had to change discs in my DVD player. There was no way that I was going to not watch the next episode because of the cliffhanger (though for this show, it's not really a major one). The thing is, I didn't watch the next episode, which was titled "I See You". I was watching the DVD on my laptop, and accidentally clicked on episode 9, "Kafkaesque", which was amazing generally, and then Anna Gunn's monologue at the end was some of the best acting I've ever seen. So, I went to the A.V. Club to read the review and discovered that I'd accidentally skipped an episode: "I See You" had been given a B, while "Kafkaesque" was deserving of an A.

The thing is, I hadn't realised that I had missed an episode. Normally the plot moves so quickly that you know if you've missed something, but that didn't happen. I haven't gone back to watching "I See You", because I don't think there's any need to. Maybe I will in the future; B is a good grade at The A.V. Club, but Breaking Bad is the kind of show where grades rarely slip below A-. In shows like this, episodes are given a B if they are sort of in between episodes that set up necessary plot or character elements. "I See You" was probably a great episode of television compared to other shows, but was it really necessary for the show to make this episode? I have no idea. Considering that my viewing experienced wasn't hindered in any way by not having seen it, I'd say not. Also because "Kafkaesque" (I really hate typing that) is in my opinion the best episode of the season. Now I'm off to start watching Season 4.

Why you should be watching the Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Until late 2012 Pride and Prejudice had been a book that I'd always liked but never loved. Last July I had coffee with a friend from work and she asked me if I was watching "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries", a webseries that was a modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in vlog form. I'd seen the first two episodes back in April and then sort of let it be, and by that stage there were about 30 episodes. I devoured them and never looked back.

Over the past couple of years, I've become a bit of a television fan, and the sort of shows I enjoy the most are female-centric. More specifically, there are women at the centre of the show who have personalities beyond wanting to sleep with the hot male protagonist. Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation is pretty much my hero. Big Love, an HBO series that depicted a polygamous marriage works best for me as a study of how fundamentalist religion can oppress women simply by showing what is expected of Bill Henrickson's three wives and the women at the polygamous compounds. (The main symbolism of the show is the connection between polygamy and same sex marriage, but the plight of the women in the show was always more fascinating to me). I was raised by a feminist, and it's rubbed off on me.

Elizabeth Bennet may be the protagonist of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, but one of the best things the show has done is flesh out many of the secondary characters. Jane was one of the main characters in the book, but the increased focus on Lydia (at the start a 20 year old party girl) and Charlotte (Lizzie's best friend and grad school classmate who edits the videos) makes it truly an ensemble show about four women growing up. Mrs Bennet is still obsessed with marrying off her daughters, and the parts of the Bennet parents are acted out through costume theatre, which is hilarious. The girls also take part in costume theatre as each other and most of the other characters at some point.

One of the best parts of the show is the interactivity with the fans. For my favourite TV shows, I watch them and go and read a review over on The A.V. Club, but YouTube enables immediate feedback from the fans. I love reading the comments about how insufferable Lizzie is with her prejudice (hence the title of the book - but there are more viewers than I expected who haven't read the book before), because that's definitely what Elizabeth was like in the book, and Ashley Clements plays the part to a T. Over Christmas I watched the BBC miniseries with my family, and Elizabeth's stubbornness in that adaptation is definitely matched by Lizzie's here.

The writing is amazing. Despite Lizzie's prejudices (again, see the title of the book) colouring her views of the people in her life, the show is written in a way that lets the audience make up its own mind about events. While we as the audience may judge Lizzie, Charlotte or Lydia's actions (these are the characters whose decisions we see the most of), the script does not. This is most evident in the fallout from the big event (I'm trying to avoid spoilers).

Mary Kate Wiles, who plays Lydia is easily the breakout star, and for the sections of the narrative where Lizzie is away from home, Lydia made her own videos, so that the audience could see what was going on. It was in these videos that we met Mary, who is in this version the cousin of the Bennet sisters and my favourite character - probably because she is the most like me. After Lydia's 21st birthday, she and Lizzie get into an argument, which is the catalyst for the rest of the narrative. The two don't speak to each other, and Lizzie is off at the modern equivalent of Pemberley. 

The fallout from the big event has some of the best acting and writing I've ever seen. This is a show that can depict an abusive/manipulative relationship without ever judging it, and the actors depict vulnerability in a way I've never seen in either television or film. Episode 87, which was released today/yesterday (I'm in Australia, so time zones are a bit confusing) is easily the best episode of the show to date. I watched it on my phone at work on my lunch break, because I need to be careful with the download limit at home and I cried. I cry at a lot of things, but I was blown away.

There's so much else I could say about this show, but won't, because you should experience. As much as I'm going to miss it when it's over, I'll be keeping track of the actors and writers. I'm also really excited to watch the videos all the way through.

The official YouTube channel of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is here, and you can access a playlist that includes all of Lydia's videos here.

The Hunger Games movie...

Was amazing. There was one tiny little thing they could have done better (no spoilers), but other than that, it was near perfect. I especially liked how they were able to emphasise the reality-TV-ness of it. Jennifer Lawrence was fantastic as Katniss, and other standout actors were:

• Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman (I just mentioned to a friend that there should be a spinoff where Caesar and Peeta have their own talk show)
• Donald Sutherland as President Snow - I loved the bits with him and Seneca Crane discussing what to do with Katniss
• Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket (she was perfect in the scene after Katniss had her private session with the Gamemakers)
• Woody Harrelson as Haymitch (even better in the scene after the Gamemakers)
• I wasn't keen on Lenny Kravitz as Cinna when I found out about it, but he was great, even though I expected someone younger.
• As far as Peeta goes, Josh Hutcherson was good, but he wasn't really given that much depth (which was my problem with Peeta in the books as well, his whole personality was basically that he was in love with Katniss, at least until Mockingjay)

One last thing I'll talk about is the text message conversation I had with my sister before we met up for the movie today, because there were parts of it that were hilarious (mainly on her part). I've made it in colour, so you know which bits I've added, which are still in black.

Megan: Just got out of work. Hooray! Meet you at flinders around 3? What kind of snacks do you want? (If it's two and a half hours, I definitely need snacks)

Megan: Wish you could still get Bertie Botts beans, actually. may the odds be ever in your flavour!*

Me: Lime flavoured chips of some description? I might also buy a choc top there. Frustrating hunger games jewellery searc on etsy last night, it was all about Peeta.

Megan: that's weird, What kind of jewellery were you looking for? More mockingjay pins? (The bookshop gave me one for pre-ordering Mockingjay. I skipped uni that day just so I could spend it reading the book.)

Me: No, a 'may the odds be ever in your favour' necklace. I might have to make my own.

Megan (on the subject of food): We could get into the district 12 thing and have bread and terrible roast pigeon or something. (no)

Megan (on the jewellery): Ooh, that would be cool. what would you make it out of? Or you could find someone on etsy with a style you like and ask if they do custom pieces.

Me: Hmm that could work. There's some nice district twelve themed stuff on etsy too. But we are not hunting game for snacks.

Megan (a bit later): Okay, I'm waiting for a tram on Lygon St. You'll probably beat me! (I did) I looked at etsy, see what you mean about Peeta. So much "real or not real" stuff.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

I'm going to try and do this in the order of what happened in the film. I really liked the whole first part, up to and including the reaping. District 12 looked fantastic, particularly in contrast to the Capitol (which came later). They did the emotion very well; before the reaping, you get the idea of exactly how much Katniss loves Prim, and your heart absolutely breaks when she volunteers. Also the reaping. I love Effie saying the words of the movie that is obviously shown every year. Furthermore, I love the absolute silence when the names are called, because that is what would happen in an impoverished District like Twelve. In the career districts, there'd be stamping and cheering because for them it's an honour to participate.

The other thing I thought they did very well was the whole reality-TV aspect of the Games, which is what it is in the books. This is a specific reason that made the books perfect for adaptation into films (although there's rarely a film nowadays that wasn't originally a book). What was great was seeing Seneca Crane talking to President Snow about Katniss, and Haymitch trying to convince Seneca not to kill her. Also the bit where the Gamemakers talk about Katniss getting close to the edge of the arena as great foreshadowing to Catching Fire (my favourite of the trilogy). Upon reading other reviews, I'm surprised none of the other book fans have either picked up on it, or at least remembered that they said it. Those conversations the Gamemakers had up in their control room, about the fire and the mutts was good too (and I'm kind of glad they didn't use the fallen tributes' features in those hounds, that was perhaps the creepiest thing in the book).

The thing that could have been done better was the understanding between Haymitch and Katniss about the way that Katniss received her gifts from sponsors. Katniss realised she had to play up the romance angle of her relationship with Peeta in order to get given gifts. In the books, there are a couple of lines that make this clear.

'Haymitch couldn't be sending me a clearer message. One kiss equals one pot of broth. I can almost hear his snarl. "You're supposed to be in love, sweetheart. The boy's dying. Give me something I can work with!"' (page 316); and

'Haymitch and I don'[t get along well in person, buty maybe Peeta is right about us being alike, because he seems to be able to communicate with me by the timing of his gifts. Like how I knew I must be close to water when he withheld it and how I knew the sleep syrup wasn't just something to ease Peeta's pain and how I know now I have to play up the romance. He hasn't made much effort to connect with Peeta, really. Perhaps he thinks a bowl of broth would just be a bowl of broth to Poeeta, whereas I'll see the strings attached to it.' (page 372)

I'll admit that I didn't catch the note that Haymitch sent with the bowl of broth, which could have said something along those lines. But seriously, all that happened with Peeta and Katniss afterwards was 'What do we do now?' 'We try to forget' 'I don't want to forget'. Because the romance-as-strategy thing wasn't really done that well, there was no subsequent fallout that made sense when Katniss told Peeta it was all strategy for her.
EDIT: Okay, I will admit that the thing I liked least about the books was the love triangle part. Like Mark Oshiro, I hate love triangles more than most things, so in that sense I'm glad there wasn't such a large focus on the romance (except for the cuts back to Gale). Also I didn't really like Peeta or Gale that much. Give me more Cinna. Or Finnick. But I think the way that Katniss and Haymitch were able to communicate with each other with the gifts was an important element of the story. Also, before the victor's interview, the conversation between the two of them about how she needs to make the Capitol (politicians) believe that she did it because she was in love with Peeta was rushed, but communicated more effectively in the books. The whole 'faked romance' (regardless of what happens between Katniss and her boys in the future) was half the reason the Capitol was mad at her, and it wasn't done very well.

I can't believe I left this out when I originally wrote this review, but the riot in District 11 after Rue died was one of the most powerful scenes in the movie, and made me feel all of the things. I loved it so much. The story of the little boy from District 4 was also sad - you saw how young he was and that he died straight away, even though you didn't know his name.

Finally, the other thing I really loved was the bit where Seneca Crane walked into the room and there was the bowl of berries there. It was nuanced, which made it perfect. Good storytelling in writing or on the stage or screen shouldn't have to beat you over the head with what's happening, it just shows you and allows the audience to make its own conclusions.

If there's an extended cut of this movie, I hope they'd give more time for the Games themselves, which felt rushed - everything that was done before that was well paced. Because Katniss is narrating in the books, you can keep track of how many tributes are still alive, whereas there must have been a couple (admittedly characters that weren't well developed that were left out in the film) that were skipped over. Okay, by my count there was one that was left out, but I've only seen the film once.

AFL: It's just a game of sport

It's not the end of the world if Collingwood wins the Grand Final folks, the planet's still spinning last time I checked. I've spent most of the year trying to work out this Collingwood supporter hate, because I don't know any Collingwood supporters like that. In fact, the people I know who are like that are from other clubs. And my mum goes for the pies in an Essendon dominated household, so when I say I sort of go for them, people treat me as if I'm a Nazi sympathiser. It's a fucking game. And I was slightly offended by all the anti-Collingwood groups on facebook, but I'm just over it. I think the main problem I have is that people aren't supporting the Saints, just that they're against Collingwood. IMO, the team that wins the Premiership deserves to, end of story. I just wish there was more goodwill.

All this being said, I think possibly one of the reasons that I sympathise is because I was in the most hated house in both primary and secondary school, through no fault of my own. I was just placed there because my sister was. It's not like she got to choose her house.

The other thing I have a problem with at the moment is professional football players' salaries. Gary Ablett gets something like 1.5 million a year at the Gold Coast. How can people justify spending that much money on an athlete, who most likely makes less of a contribution to society than teachers? I remember there was a teacher's strike and our beloved (cough) ex-PM John Howard said that they needed to be in schools. Then fucking pay them more (yes I'm just angry today), because if they're so valuable, they deserve to be paid more, then they wouldn't have to go on strike. I know this is contentious because we'd have to raise taxes so the government can pay them more. All this being said, I think Chris Judd, who won the Brownlow this year has the right idea about everything:


And that's all for today, otherwise I'll start complaining about things I shouldn't